Chaz Mostert and Lee Holdsworth have taken an incredible victory for the 2021 Supercars Bathurst 1000. The #25 Walkinshaw Andretti United pair overcame tyre delamination early in the piece while leading to be the best positioned through a frantic second half of the race, that saw 4 safety cars in the last 60 laps.
“It was a pretty tough race, when we did that tyre I thought it was going to be a tough slog,” Mostert said post-race. “Credit to the guys, this car has been speedy all weekend. We started on Pole and won the race and every time you start on pole you never think you’re going to win.
“I’m out of breath, I left it all out there.”
“I honestly feel like it’s been a dream this week, it’s not going to sink in for a while,” said Lee Holdsworth. “This week couldn’t have gone more to plan. We rolled out with such a quick car, Chaz has been quick, the team has given us such a quick car.
“This has been a long time coming for me so I’m just stoked to get that one.”
The podium was completed by the #6 Tickford Racing Mustang of Cam Waters and James Moffat, followed by the #99 Erebus Motorsport Commodore of Brodie Kostecki and David Russell.
Retiring legend Jamie Whincup just missed out on the podium, finishing 4th with Craig Lowndes in the #88 Red Bull Triple Eight Race Engineering Commodore, with the top 5 completed by Bryce Fullwood and Warren Luff in the #2 Walkinshaw Andretti United Commodore.
Mostert and Holdsworth lead the race from the first lap, overtaking the #11 Dick Johnson Racing Mustang down at the Chase. Both drivers were the fastest on track, with Lee Holdsworth holding the fastest lap for the majority of the race until it was taken by Chaz late on.
They won despite a left rear tyre delamination over the top of the mountain on lap 49, forcing a pit stop to change tyres, putting them off sequence from the field through the majority of the race. They cycled to the lead as each round of pit stops but were looking for a safety car to get on strategy and recover the 30-second deficit.
The battle for the lead through the middle part of the race was a strategy battle between the #888 Red Bull Triple Eight Race Engineering Commodore of Shane van Gisbergen and Garth Tander, the #6 Tickford Racing Mustang of Cam Waters and James Moffat, The #99 Erebus Motorsport Commodore of Brodie Kostecki and David Russell and the #11 Dick Johnson Racing Mustang of Anton De Pasquale and Tony D’Alberto. Different fuel and driver management strategies saw each team have stronger periods as they played out against each other, with only the #25 and #888 electing to give their co-drivers four full stints while staying near the front.
The sister cars to all four contenders had run into trouble in the early stages; The #44 Tickford Racing Mustang with Thomas Randle at the wheel made contact with the wall at Hell Corner on lap 17, bringing out the first safety car of the race. This saw the entire field come into the pits, with both the #88 Red Bull Triple Eight Race Engineering car of Whincup and Lowndes as well as the #17 Dick Johnson Racing Mustang of Will and Alex Davison getting significantly delayed by the double-stack in the pit lane, both dropping outside the top 10. The #9 Erebus Motorsport Commodore of Will Brown and Jack Perkins was soon into the garage after a power steering failure, seeing them spend 30 minutes in the garage to replace the system.
The race settled through the middle part of the race, as the co-drivers ticked off their minimum required laps intermixed with the main-gamers trying to make their way through the field. The #88 had recovered to the top 5 after their double-stack earlier in the day while the #17 was still working hard at the end of the top 10.
But then an intervention caused by the local wildlife on lap 105 changed the shape of the race.
A lost echidna found its way onto the Bathurst 1000 Super Cars racetrack, causing major chaos for drivers.
The little mammal wandered across the track and miraculously was narrowly missed by several of the super cars. #9News
FULL STORY: https://t.co/a1lHQIatBE pic.twitter.com/joteTcm8gA
— 9News Australia (@9NewsAUS) December 5, 2021
An echidna made a daring crossing of the track, resulting in a safety car and a careful extraction of the wildlife by the marshals. This gave the #25 the opportunity to get back on strategy with the rest of the field, Holdsworth pitting and installing Chaz for the charge to the line. They came out in second place, just behind the #888 of Shane van Gisbergen, with Whincup in the #88 and De Pasquale in the #11 just behind.
The restart saw some of the closest, most breathtaking racing Bathurst has seen. An attempted pass for the lead around the outside of Griffins Bend by Mostert hung him high and wide, allowing Whincup the chance to scythe through on the inside at the Cutting. Anton then pounced on the exit of The Cutting, slotting Mostert back to 4th, blocking Waters in the process. Waters then had his hands full of Brodie Kostecki, who sent it on the grass at Metal Grate to take 5th.
If we could just do this for another 50 laps, that’s be excellent 🙏 #Bathurst1000 #RepcoSC pic.twitter.com/PGDzxIXxt7
— Supercars (@supercars) December 5, 2021
The race calmed for just a moment, before another incident further down the field. Jayden Ojeda in the #34 Matt Stone Racing Commodore locked the wheels coming down the mountain and fired into the wall on the exit of the Esses on lap 112. This brought the entire field into the pits, with the shorter fuel fill for Mostert putting the #25 back into the effective lead, and great work from the Erebus crew putting the #99 into effective second. Triple Eight’s #88 and Dick Johnson’s #17 were again affected by the double stack, dropping Will Davison and Jamie Whincup down to 13th and 14th respectively.
It was a complicated equation for the teams from that point in the race; the longest stint of the race by any car had been only 23 laps, but with the safety car coming out at lap 112, teams would need to save four laps of fuel to get home with only one more stop.
As the green flag restarted the race with 46 laps remaining, Mostert, Kostecki and van Gisbergen sat in behind David Reynolds in the #26 Kelly Grove Racing Mustang, the only car that didn’t pit under the lap 112 safety car. Mostert was the first to pull the trigger, passing Reynolds on lap 138, as van Gisbergen passed Kostecki just behind. Mostert immediately put the hammer down, setting a race-best Sector 2 while the #888 was stuck behind the slower car. Van Gisbergen managed to pass Reynolds, just as there was another incident resulting in a Safety Car.
The #35 Matt Stone Racing Commodore with Jake Kostecki at the wheel fired into the tyres at Forrest’s Elbow. After a long pause, the Safety Car was finally called, neutralising the field and allowing everyone to save fuel. Kostecki managed to extract the #35 from the tyres, and in a canny move by the team, stayed out for another lap to catch up to the Safety Car train, before pitting for repairs and managing to return the car to the circuit without losing a lap.
Without having to worry about fuel, the pace was on at the restart. Mostert and van Gisbergen were the fastest on track, being the only two drivers to dip into the 2:05’s with Mostert lowering the fastest lap on 5 consecutive occasions. As the critical lap 138 arrived, Mostert dived into the pits with a 5 second lead, along with Brodie Kostecki in the #99, Will Davison in the #17, Tim Slade in the #3 Blanchard Racing Team Mustang, and a number of others through the field. Shane van Gisbergen pit one lap later, putting brand new tyres on for the final stint, before another Safety Car to recover the stricken #11 Dick Johnson Racing Mustang that had stopped on circuit; a broken propshaft leaving Anton De Pasquale stranded on the exit of the Cutting.
The Safety Car brought Mostert and van Gisbergen back together again, and they were almost attached at the restart. Further down the field, there were minor skirmishes and moments of contact until a major crash up at the Metal Grate. Broc Feeney in the #39 Triple Eight Race Engineering wildcard entry was only a metre wide of the ideal line through Metal Grate, and the car understeered directly into the concrete, breaking the front right corner and firing into the gravel at McPhillamy.
🚨 BP Ultimate Safety Car deployed 🚨
The Triple Eight wildcard of Feeney and Ingall is out of the Repco Bathurst 1000 😲 #Bathurst1000 #RepcoSC pic.twitter.com/jaHeRgKDmJ
— Supercars (@supercars) December 5, 2021
Mostert had one more restart to manage, and with 14 laps left, he executed it perfectly. Using the #25 Walkinshaw Andretti United Commodore’s pace through Sector 1, Mostert broke out to a half a second lead over van Gisbergen in the #888, with the pair trading laps in the 2:05’s as the laps ticked down. But the battle would end prematurely; a delaminated right-front tyre through the chase for van Gisbergen only 7 laps from the end forcing him to slow the car down and bring the car in for a late pit stop and tyre change. Van Gisbergen emerged in 18th, after suffering the same issue as the leading car had earlier on in the race.
From there, Mostert was able to manage the gap, and took his second Bathurst 1000 victory and the first for Lee Holdsworth on his 18th attempt. It was the first win from Pole in the Great Race since Garth Tander and Will Davison won for the Holden Racing Team (operated by Walkinshaw) in 2009.
Just off the podium was the #88 of Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes, just missing out on a fairytale end to Whincup’s full-time driving career. Fifth was Bryce Fullwood and Warren Luff in the #2 Walkinshaw Andretti United car, marking only the second finish off the podium for Luff in the last decade.
The top 10 was completed by Nick Percat and Dale Wood in the #8 Brad Jones Racing Commodore, James Courtney and Thomas Randle in the #44 Tickford Racing Mustang, the #14 Brad Jones Racing Commodore of Todd Hazelwood and Dean Fiore, the #3 Blanchard Racing Mustang of Slade and Blanchard, and the #17 Dick Johnson Racing Mustang of Will and Alex Davison.
Particularly impressive were the efforts of the #44 and #14 cars. Thomas Randle put the #44 into the wall early on in the race, dropping the car a lap down, and after getting a wave-around thanks to the Echidna on lap 105, had the pace to move up the field in the chaos of the last part of the race. The same is true for Hazelwood and Fiore, who battled a muffler issue, an intermittent radio and warped rear brakes to climb 10 positions in the latter stages.
